God Enriches

Erin and I often note that our new adult lives still resemble our college days. We walk to class; our friends live just downstairs; we receive--and relish--at least a few free meals each week. What's more, we work with a very young faculty at school. Most of our colleagues are recently graduated, like us. We had a network-wide inservice meeting today, and I was reminded that though we lack the wisdom and gravity of seasoned teachers and older souls, what we do have is a joyful, vibrant spirit in our workplace that would not be possible I think, without our collective youth. I am thankful for that.

It appears that life next year will actually look even more like college. We're delighted to report that we'll be joined at Glendale Prep by Manuel and Cara Valle, a couple of dear friends from Hillsdale. Cara was Erin's roommate through the first two years at HC, and Manuel was my housemate last year. It will be as if we've just switched roommates.

Manuel and Cara flew in for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We spent part of a weekend exploring new places downtown and a few trails in Sedona, and then our visitors had their interviews and teaching demonstrations on a Monday. The visit must have gone pretty well, as they were both offered jobs within a week and took only a day to accept the offer. We loved the rich time we spent with them, and we are overjoyed to know that our lives have not gone separate ways as we must have assumed last May. I don't think we ever envisioned this when we moved to Arizona.

There is more, though less significant, news, and I'll add a little of that here. Our last post was just before Christmas, and I'm the one to blame, of course, for the dearth of humorous updates and amusing trifles.

Erin and I survived our first series of parent-teacher conferences. Four days, up to 25 conferences--15 minutes, one after another--each day. Exhausting, but mostly good. There must always be a few crazies in every batch of parents, but my classes, happily, are mostly free from them. I was only yelled at, indirectly, once. I don't think anyone yelled at Erin; in fact, as a rare female faculty member and a kind soul, she received several hugs. All I got was handshakes. Anyway, it was an illuminating experience: many of the conferences gave us a broader vision of the students as children and souls, not just bodies in the classroom.

In other important news, I improved my record to 2-0 as a head baseball coach. Though most weeks I am the second assistant coach, both of the higher-ups were absent on the week of a doubleheader, so the duties fell to me. I had a lot of help from several parents and co-teachers--all of whom knew far more about middle school baseball than myself--but I was the one handing the lineup card to the ump. So I take all of the credit. It helps my case that I was gone on the week of our only loss this season. See, they really need me.

I give you this Barley update in conclusion. Barley is happy, cuddly, and fat, though not so fat as he was when we first returned from Christmas vacation. His sitters--kind souls all--overfed the little guy, and he's been on a diet ever since. He doesn't really mind. He did give us a little bit of a scare last week with some digestion problems. Erin took him to the vet, who suggested a $175 x-ray to see if he was constipated. Erin rightly suggested that we just wait a couple of days to see. Turns out he's fine.

PZ